Sunday May 30, 1999

It has again been cool since the Victoria Day weekend. However, it has improved for the weekend! Today was nowhere near as warm as last Monday, but it was a fine day for a walk - mostly sunny, with some wind. The wind and occasional clouds were a nuisance for picture-taking, but I managed to get a bunch. Today I was also looking for things to take backdrop pictures of. I got some (see my BackDrops page), but I also got a number of mosquito bites!

This pile of wood looks like the remains of an old walking bridge. The trail I am on at this point is below the newer bike path in Queen Elizabeth Park. I think the walk along here would have been quite interesting 20 or 30 years ago. There is a slow seepage of water through the area, and 2 weeks ago there was still a patch of ice down here. What happens is that the seepage continues all winter, and so a large layer of ice builds up. When it is in the shade, and on the south side of the valley like this, it takes a long time to melt.

I spotted this flower on the trail not far from the old bridge. I think it is fully in bloom, even though it is mostly green in colour.

This isn't very big shelf fungus, but there is lots of it. I've seen several batches in the area - I think it must be getting more humid than it traditionally is around here.

This old dead rose-bush on the edge of the river bank has a bunch of spiderweb on it. Unfortunately you can't really see the spiderweb in this picture. I think for things that small I need to try full-detail mode on the camera. A later picture of a small bush really loaded with web didn't show up at all so I deleted it. At least on this one you can still see all of the thorns.

This apple tree is off on the river bank, quite a ways from any houses. So, it must have grown from a seed dropped by a bird or something. It's pretty impressive, in terms of blossom, for a wild one. Johnny Appleseed must have passed this way!

This is a bush right at the little lookout point that I go to on this walk. (For any Edmontonians, its the one right above the outflow for Mill Creek.) Since this is a bunch of flowers together, it isn't a saskatoon or wild cherry. Maybe its a wild form of the tame tree that has flowers like this (see my BackDrops page for a couple).

This is the same wild Clematis plant that I took a picture of last weekend. Those flowers are now shrivelled up. This one is a late one, not quite open yet. I tried several distances, but still couldn't get one in focus. I think the camera, lacking a manual focus, is focussing on the leaves further back.

Of course I had to take pictures of my usual subjects, just to see how they are changing as the seasons go by. This is the trio of trees.

And this is the small hollow at the top of one of the hills. From this angle you can't even see the bottom (nothing but dead leaves).